


you have unread messages

by Becks_Rylynn



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Supernatural
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Texting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-20
Updated: 2016-02-20
Packaged: 2018-05-22 00:18:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6063613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Becks_Rylynn/pseuds/Becks_Rylynn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laurel lets out a breath and leans back in her chair, shutting her eyes. Well, thanks for the heart attack, honey. “Are you kidding me.”</p>
<p>That appears to be the end of his Game of Thrones marathon because the message after that, sent at 2:31, says, what does bae mean?</p>
<p>(Dean Winchester/Laurel Lance prompt fill.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	you have unread messages

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt was ''Hello'' by Adele from songbirdie-101 on tumblr. I...do not think this was what she had in mind when she gave me that prompt.
> 
> Word count: 2,266

In the elevator, on the way down to headquarters, Laurel switches her phone back on. Just to make sure she hasn’t missed any important texts or phone calls while she was in and out of meetings at work. She’s expecting a text or a voicemail from Dean, maybe something from her father, hopefully something from Sara. She is not expecting the poor thing to immediately go berserk.

The notifications come pouring in and just keep coming. Laurel raises her eyebrows at the constant melodic tone and turns her, rather sheepish, gaze to John. He arches an eyebrow at her but doesn’t say a word.

Aside from the annoying notification tone that keeps sounding over and over again, she will admit to feeling a touch of panic set in when she sees exactly how many texts Dean has sent her. She knows he’s alive because he’s been texting her, but there are other people out there - Sam, Cas, Charlie, Jody and the girls - and if Dean is bombarding her phone with texts then chances are something has happened to one of them.

John must sense her tension because he asks her, quietly, “Everything all right?”

She tosses him a quick, distracted smile. “I hope so.”

The elevator doors open.

She takes a quick moment to assess the situation in the base. Oliver, despite calling a team meeting, isn’t even here yet, and Thea is still busy training, so Laurel figures she has some time to check her messages. She offers Thea a quick wave, rests her hand on Felicity’s shoulder on the way past her in lieu of a verbal greeting and gets a quick squeeze back in response, and then she parks herself at the table and prays nobody’s dead.

Much to her surprise, relief, and confusion, most of the texts that have come in seem to be Dean’s reactions to Game of Thrones. She blinks, staring down at her phone. Surely this is a joke. She stays like that for a minute, eyes narrowed, certain that she has to be missing some sort of hidden code in the messages or something. But nope. It’s real. Dean has live texted her several episodes of Game of Thrones. To specify, Dean has sent her fifty-seven text messages of his opinions on Game of Thrones.

The last one, sent at 2:17, just says, _dont tell charlie but fuck this show_

Laurel lets out a breath and leans back in her chair, shutting her eyes. Well, thanks for the heart attack, honey. “Are you kidding me.”

That appears to be the end of his Game of Thrones marathon because the message after that, sent at 2:31, says, _what does bae mean?_

She shakes her head and can’t help the fond chuckle that slips out. She glances over at the rest of the team. Oliver has just strolled into the base but it doesn’t look like he’s in any hurry to start the meeting, crouching down next to Felicity to talk to her. Laurel looks back at her phone and scrolls through the rest of the messages.

**2:37**   
_i’m serious. charlie programmed you into my phone as THE BAE. all caps. she refuses to explain._

**2:45**   
_laur?_

**2:49**   
_are you even listening to me???_

**2:55**   
_laur come on im in hell right now_

**2:57**   
_not literally. i want to make that clear dont worry_

**3:10**   
_shit are you in ameeting right now?_

**3:38**   
_is it possible to die of boredom? i think thats whats happening right now._

**3:45**  
_heeey pretty bird_

She checks her watch. Five to four. She cranes her neck to glance over at the others. Despite the fact that Oliver seems to be attempting to herd them over to the table to start the meeting, the others still seem preoccupied so Laurel decides to risk it and fires off a quick text. What do you need?

The reply is almost instant.

**4:04**   
_HELLO FROM THE OTHER SIDE_

**4:05**   
_I MUST HAVE CALLED A THOUSAND TIMES_

It startles an embarrassingly loud snort of laughter out of her. She claps a hand over her mouth and glances over to the others. Felicity has looked away from her computer briefly, lips pulled up into a smile, but everyone else has either not heard her or has chosen to ignore it. She texts back, _You losing it without me, Winchester?_

**4:15**   
_went to see the girls at jody’s house of wayward daughters. girls had the flu. now I have the flu._

That would explain a lot. _And now you’re stuck in bed watching GOT?_

**4:19**   
_fuck that show. bored out of my skull_.

_I’m sorry, babe_ , she texts. Then, as an afterthought, _If you were home, I’d bring you some soup_. She types out another text but hesitates long enough to think better of it and delete it. Everyone is slowly migrating over to the table at this point. Thea, still sweaty and chugging from her water bottle, drops down into the seat next to her. Laurel quickly types up the text again and sends it before she can talk herself out of it. _When are you coming home?_ She puts the phone on the table and tries not to worry about being too clingy.

Even after two years of being together, Laurel still worries about being too clingy. She knows she shouldn’t. Dean did just spend the day begging for her attention over texts, after all. She doubts her being mildly clingy bothers him. It’s just one of those insecurities left over from Oliver. She loved him so much and she made sure he knew it and all he did was go out and cheat on her over and over and over _and over_ again. And it wasn’t like he was subtle about it. Everyone knew what he did. She knew. She just…figured it must have been something she was doing, something wrong with her, so she turned a blind eye to the cheating and did her best to fix it and be everything Oliver wanted her to be. She did her best to mold herself into the kind of girl who he would stay with. She played hard to get, she made herself appear aloof, turned Laurel Lance completely inside out for him so that she wasn’t too needy, too clingy, too PDA-ish, so that he didn’t feel the need to stray. The fool still strayed.

But Dean isn’t Oliver. His eyes are on her and only her and after two years together, she gets the feeling they’re always going to be on her.

Still, that doesn’t mean insecurities instantly go away. She’s working on it, she’s been working on it for a long time, but they have a tendency to just pop up out of nowhere every now and then. She will never admit it out loud, never give him the satisfaction of knowing what he did to her, but Ollie did a number on her. She’s reminded of that every time those latent insecurities rear their ugly heads. When her phone buzzes on the table and Oliver still hasn’t called the meeting to order, she snatches it up.

**4:28**   
_as soon as i can stand up without feeling dizzy. you miss me that much?_

Her lips twitch. _Only parts of you._

**4:33**   
_wow dirty. i’m a terrible influence on you._

She grins but doesn’t get a chance to reply because Oliver’s starting the meeting. She sighs and leans back, trying her best to listen to him. The meeting is beyond boring as most weekday afternoon meetings tend to be, but Oliver seems to be using them as a platform to practice his public speaking skills for his Mayoral campaign, so they all humor him.

Honestly, Laurel’s still not sure about the logistics of him running for Mayor. He doesn’t have the greatest reputation in the world, he lacks knowledge about most of the things a Mayor would need to be in the know about, she has no idea where he would even find the time to be Mayor, Green Arrow and Oliver all at once, and he is simply not a politician. If she didn’t know that him being Mayor would make it easier to be a vigilante in the city, she probably wouldn’t vote for him. If she’s being honest. But he seems genuinely excited about this whole thing and the city is dying regardless of who the figure head is, so she’s going to let it slide and let him have his fun.

However, that said, she does not need to hear him use his Mayoral Candidate voice to talk about recycling in the lair so when her phone buzzes, she reads the text.

**4:48**   
_if nyssa challenged me to a duel (winner gets you) who do you think would win?_

She rolls her eyes. _I’m not a prize._

**4:55**   
_nyssa?_

She swallows a laugh. _Yes but I’m sure you’d put up a good fight, love._

**4:59**   
_i think i’d last a solid minute and a half_

_That’s the spirit!_ She texts, adding a lipstick kiss emoji for good measure.

“Laurel!” She looks up from her phone sharply at the sound of her name. Everyone is looking at her. Oliver has his arms crossed over his chest and he looks deeply disappointed with her. Uh oh. Busted. “Am I boring you?” He asks.

She blinks at him. “Kind of,” she says, bluntly, without preamble. And then she levels him with a single look.

He looks rather crestfallen. “Was it the recycling?”

“It wasn’t so much the recycling,” Thea jumps in. “More the fact that you’ve said almost exactly the same thing at every meeting for the past two weeks and, like, we get it, Ollie. Recycling is important.”

“Also,” Felicity pipes up, “I’ve noticed that you have a tendency to start sentences and then just…” She waves a hand in the air. “It’s like you don’t actually know where you’re going and you’re just kind of hoping for the best.”

“And are you deliberately changing the pitch of your voice?” John asks.

“I want to sound approachable,” Oliver says.

“You kind of sound like a doddering old man,” says Thea.

“Or like someone who loves the sound of his own voice,” John adds.

“But you’re very handsome!” Felicity chirps, and then does this awkward sort of finger gun thing, ending it with a wink.

Laurel takes advantage of the distraction to look at the text Dean has just sent her.

**5:05**   
_you know what ive been thinking about lately?_

She glances at Oliver, but he’s not paying attention enough to reprimand her again and she probably wouldn’t care if he did, so whatever. _Why the Golden Globes thought the Martian was a comedy?_

**5:10**   
_we should get married._

She freezes. That, she had not been expecting. She gapes down at the message, reading it and re-reading it several times before it sinks in. It takes her a few minutes to respond and when she does, she treads extremely carefully. _How much medication are you on right now?_

**5:21**   
_none_

_How high is your fever?_ He doesn’t reply, so she keeps going. _Because it would have to be pretty high for you to think proposing through text is a good idea._

**5:25**   
_okay. i’ll propose another time then._

She licks her lips slowly. She doesn’t know how to reply to that, so she doesn’t. She has no idea if he’s serious or not. He could, in fact, be suffering from a high fever and maybe she should call Sam to check on him. Or he could be completely serious. She can’t say she hasn’t thought about it. They’ve never talked about marriage (though, they probably should have) but they own a house together, they’ve talked about having children, she sleeps better when he’s next to her, and they know each other’s vigilante shaped secrets. When she pictures her future, the vision isn’t hazy and precarious, it’s clear and real and he’s right there next to her. When she thinks about walking down the aisle, it’s him she’s walking to. When she pictures herself sitting on a front porch somewhere all wrinkled and surrounded by grandchildren, it’s him sitting next to her yelling at kids to get off his lawn.

It’s not some passing fling of a relationship. It never has been. She is pretty sure that Dean is the end of the line for her. She’s known that for a long time. She’s just never really been sure if he feels the same way. If he wants to get married or if he just wants to keep living the way they’ve been living. Her phone buzzes with one last text.

**5:36**   
_laurel i’m serious. proposal’s coming. did you think it would never happen?_

“Hey,” Thea whispers. She’s got her legs thrown over one side of the chair and she’s tilting her head back over the other side to Laurel. She, apparently, has decided to abandon the current conversation topic Oliver is droning on about in favor of Laurel. Flattering, to be honest. “What’s up with you?”

Laurel puts her phone down and tries to smooth her probably obnoxious smile out, clearing her throat. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know.” Thea straightens in her seat. “You just look really giddy right now. You’re all glowy and blushy and - _oh_.” She wrinkles her nose. “Were you and Dean _sexting_ during the middle of a team meeting? I’m sitting right next to you.”

“No,” Laurel murmurs. “No, that’s not - I was just…” Okay, she can’t help the smile. “I’m going to marry this nerd.”

**end**


End file.
